Entomologists have described a new species of the neotropical orchid bee genus Eufriesea from the Islas Marías of Nayarit State, México in the Pacific. Eufriesea insularis, female holotype. Image credit: Ayala et al., doi: 10.3897/jhr.92.87197. Eufriesea is a genus of over 60 bee species in the tribe Euglossini, commonly known …
Read More »New Orchid Species
An international team of botanists has discovered three new endemic species of the orchid genus Lepanthes in the highlands of Ecuador. Lepanthes oro-lojaensis growing in its natural habitat. Image credit: Francisco Tobar Suarez. Lepanthes is a large genus of orchids with up to 1,000 species distributed in the Neotropics. The …
Read More »Orchid or a Dandelion?
When It Comes to Retirement, Dr. Thomas Boyce is a pediatrician and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. His best-selling book The Orchid and the Dandelion summarizes two types of individuals: dandelions (hardy and propagating) and orchids (requires extraordinary …
Read More »45-55 Million Year Old Orchid Pollinaria Attached to Pollinating Insect Found in Piece of Baltic Amber
A new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society documents evidence of an orchid fossil trapped in Baltic amber that dates back 45-55 million years ago (Eocene epoch), beating the previous record for an orchid fossil found in Dominican amber some 20-30 million years old. A fungus …
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